A City for Everyone

"With all of the change happening in our community, increasingly I have heard people tell me that we want to see Kitchener develop as a city for everyone.  We need to ensure that success can be achieved for all our residents, that we recognize that we are stronger because of our collective diversity, and that we will need to lead in our focus on people, even when other orders of government may not."

As our community continues to grow and develop, it’s important that it does so for all of our residents, from our youngest to our oldest residents.
 
Over the past four years, together we have:

• Approved and began to implement the Housing For All strategy on affordable housing including:
  • Approving $15 million for affordable housing initiatives
  • Partnering with the federal government, the region and the YWCA under the Rapid Housing initiative with $2.57 million in land to build over 41 units of supportive housing and 8 units of affordable housing for single mothers.
  • Removing development charges and fees for not-for-profit housing projects
  • Creating a new role in the Planning Department to fast-track affordable housing planning approvals
• Worked with and provided support to A Better Tent City alternative housing initiative since its inception.
• Created the Mayor’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and developed a strategy and an action plan for the City.
• Created a new Office of Equity, Anti-Racism and Indigenous Initiatives with staffing resources
• Created an Equity and Anti-Racism Advisory Committee for Council
• Initiated a new compulsory EDI training program for both staff and City Council
• Launched the new BE U Swim program for trans and non-binary individuals, as well as their friends and family members to use our pools in a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment.
• Completed a report on the state of youth mental health and wellbeing with the Harvard 
• Supported the region opening a Safe Consumption and Treatment Services facility in Kitchener.